Flexible Body Armor

dotmax writes "One item to pop out of the Turin Winter Olympics is the use of flexible body armor. Similar to silly putty, this shear rate material is flexible under normal load and hardens under impact. Sounds expensive, but could offer some great alternatives for traditional hard shelled impact gear in active sports and military applications."

Meh... Color me unimpressed.

[XorNand (517466)]

Skiwear company Spyder, based in Colorado, US, developed racing suits incorporating d3o along the shins and forearms and offered members of the US and Canadian Olympic alpine ski teams the chance to try them out several months ago. "Now they love it and won't ski without it," claims Richard Palmer, CEO of UK-based d3o Labs, which developed the material.

I don't get it. What's the advantage of using flexible armor on body parts that don't flex? If it works as advertised, seems like this product would be more useful on the torso, back, neck, or near joints. Maybe I'm just jaded, but I'd bet that the skiers really couldn't care less about it. The CEO, on the other hand, now gets to brag about his new technology being used in the Olympics. Cycling and golf is full of this type of crap--technology and jargon used more as a marketing tool than to really enhance the product's performance.

Re:Meh... Color me unimpressed.

[rahvin112 (446269)]

There are advantages to having something flexible against your skin that will harden on impact. One of those is comfort. Hard plastic guards aren't comfortable and are very obvious (and more than likely hurt aerodynamics). In addition the forearms have muscles on them which if you use your muscles at all tend to flex and expand. Having a flexible soft guard on those body parts would be incredible.

Re:Meh... Color me unimpressed.

[dogugotw (635657)]

Ever wear shin pads or arm protectors? Ever notice that they need to be strapped on and chafe like a SOB? I'd love to get my hands on something like this. Built into an undersuit, moves with you, no staps, lightweight and instant protection when you hit something. I'd like to know that my non-moving bones (shins, radius/ulna, skull) were wrapped in protection when the jerk in an SUV cuts in front of my motorcycle and takes me down.

FWIW, this stuff sounds like what happens to a semi-liquid mix of cornstarch and water. Slide your hand in and it drops into the fluid; hit it hard and no penetration at all.

Re:Meh... Color me unimpressed.

[pdbogen (596723)]

I second this. I can't *wait* until this stuff gets into motorcycle gear. Gloves that turn to rigid gauntlets when I hit the pavement == win.

I used to ski race as a kid...

[tetromino (807969)]

...and frankly, this flexible armor sounds great. The reason you want some kind of protection is that you (sometimes in speed events, very often in slalom) run into gates (the plastic poles stuck in the snow that you have to turn around) with various parts of your body. Since you are going fast, and you are wearing a thin aerodynamic racing suit, it hurts like hell. So, if you don't feel like getting hurt, you strap on some plastic shin and arm guards, sort of like an Ancient Greek warrior with his greaves. Anyway, these plastic guards really are not the ideal solution. They chafe (since you are strapping them on tight, and the muscles and skin under the straps are constantly moving). They limit your motions quite a bit. They are, frankly, uncomfortable. And if you are doing speed events, they kill your aerodynamics.

So, as far as I am concerned, flexible armor is totally the way to go. Hopefully FIS won't ban it.

Re:Meh... Color me unimpressed.

[Kelbear (870538)]

Please don't think I'm trying to be mean here. Assume a friendly tone:P

But I don't quite follow. The grandparent poster was skeptical about the value of flexible armor over parts that should never bend. If your shin is bending significantly, your shin's probably broken.

Flexible armor is useful over flexing parts of your body so that you can get maximum utility. Like a flexible elbow pad, it'd let you bend your elbow easier and more powerfully. But over your non-bending shin, you'd just want the strongest protection possible here right? Shouldn't be any cases where your shin is bending.

Re:Meh... Color me unimpressed.

[Scarblac (122480)]

But I don't quite follow. The grandparent poster was skeptical about the value of flexible armor over parts that should never bend. If your shin is bending significantly, your shin's probably broken.

Close your left hand over your right lower arm. Now turn move your hand left and right, up and down, flex the muscles... that thing moves a lot. The shin likewise has muscles and two bones in it. Apparently the sporters like this flexible thing better than rigid protectors, so it seems to help.

Why the poster calls this "body armor" i'm not sure though, according to TFA this is purely about shin and arm protection, the areas that get into contact with the sticks during slalom skiing.

Re:Meh... Color me unimpressed.

[MindStalker (22827)]

Well PopSci also had an article about it (the print version, it should be on the web version in a few days). Apparently they are putting it into helmets it allows for a flexable beanie type hat to become a hardhat when nessesary. According to the article it wouldn't be good enough for a motocycle helmet but would be perfect for speeds skating for example.

Re:Meh... Color me unimpressed.

[YrWrstNtmr (564987)]

But I don't quite follow. The grandparent poster was skeptical about the value of flexible armor over parts that should never bend. If your shin is bending significantly, your shin's probably broken.

Consider putting it over your upper arm. Your bicep flexes, the bone underneath does not. But if you've ever hit a gate at high speed, you'd LOVE some armor over your upper arm.
A rigid plate works, but is much harder to work with. A flexible plate, that moves as your muscles contract, would be a lot better.

Your tibia doesn't flex (a lot), but the skin and muscle between the bone and the outside world does.

Re:Meh... Color me unimpressed.

[hazem (472289)]

If you hit a wall at 100mph, no amount of body armour is going to save you, as all your internal organs are going to be crushed in the impact.

And that's why skiers whould wear personal airbags!

This stuff does look really cool.

[Shag (3737)]

Since it only hardens on impact, could it also be used in hand weaponry?

"Honest, officer, we just came across him and he was beaten to a pulp. You can search us, go ahead, we ain't got nothin' but our gym towels..."

Re:This stuff does look really cool.

[Pulse_Instance (698417)]

One more reason to never leave the home without your towel.

impressive?

[d34thm0nk3y (653414)]

I might be impressed, but only if it uses a Holtzman Fields somehow....

Re:impressive?

[iggymanz (596061)]

you'd have to watch out for slow blades and kids with laser pointers though.

"Good jib Jimbo!" *slap*

[88NoSoup4U88 (721233)]

Hehe, I guess they shouldn't be giving anyone wearing this a slap on the shoulder after a win: He/She will instantly be packaged in a concrete cocoon!*

*Disclaimer: May be exaggerated

Not for military really.. except maybe supplement

[luvirini (753157)]

The things that happen when struck by a bullet or shrapnel are different than a skier hitting the ground. This material could perhaps help to make the impact plates, but the actual stopping of the penetration will likely need "normal means"

Spy cameras?

[eMartin (210973)]

Now when spies want to copy documents, they can just tear off a piece of their armor and press it against the pages.

Viagra Replacement?

[Jelloman (69747)]

In other news, 98% of women polled can't wait until they start making condoms out of this stuff.

Difficult to measure material's properties?

[maynard (3337)]

But Phil Green, research director at d3o Labs, says it is difficult to precisely measure the material's properties because the hardening effect only last as long as the impact itself.

Certainly a researcher could take a sample of this material and strike it with increasing force using a material with known hardness. That might get them an answer beyond: "we don't know." I'm skeptical of this material's utility in a military application. Particularly as body armor against high velocity bullets and shrapnel. Woven carbon and Kevlar seem still unmatched in its capacity to take a high impact round. But, like I said, an assault riffle and a material sample could answer that question in minutes...

Iain M. Banks

[F34nor (321515)]

Sounds like gel suit armor. Let's hope you like your suits personality.

Could be great for inline skating, etc

[JRock911 (848012)]

I do a lot of inline skating and I can see where this stuff could be revolutionary for outdoor inlining, skateboarding, etc.

Personally, I don't wear pads because they're uncomfortable. I do wear a helmet and palm sliders, which are supposed to help keep your palms from getting skinned up in an actual fall by serving as a buffer between your palms and the asphalt. In theory, they work pretty good. When you fall going upwards of 30MPH, they aren't a lot of help. Once you hit the ground, even if you initially brace with your palms, momentum is pretty much going to send you wherever it wants.

Being able to wear a long sleeved shirt or pants made of this stuff to help protect the knees and elbows would be huge. I have a road rash spot on my elbow now from a fall last weekend. Granted I don't fall much.. that was the first time in over a year I've had a crash and it was a very minor crash but even still, I'd probably wear this stuff for safety if it was available and not terribly bulky. Most inliners who are serious wear skin suits or jerseys so substituting this stuff would pretty much have no downsides as long as, like I said, it wasn't too bulky.

On the flip side, most skateboarders want to look "extreme" so this stuff might not be a huge hit with them. I personally like my skin intact, however.

Sounds like non-Newtonian fluid

[Meostro (788797)]

Looks like they use a Non-Newtonian fluid [wikipedia.org], that's the type of material that has these properties.

This was one of the cooler demonstration in my HS chemistry class, the teacher made up a big batch of water + corn starch, and was playing with it like mud, squishing it around and whatnot. Then he beat the hell out of it, and it just sat there and didn't splash, it looked (and sounded) like it was a solid sheet. It was odd to see something that was very dynamic under low force, but static under high force.

It's like a seatbelt, if you yank it hard it locks up, but if you pull gently it will extend.

Re:Sounds like non-Newtonian fluid

[MustardMan (52102)]

There's an entire field that deals with studying the properties of these and similar "weird" materials. It's called soft condensed matter. It happens to be the field in which I'm currently working ;)

Corn starch is the standard example almost everyone uses when trying to describe our field to laymen. The other one we use a lot is the term "squishy physics", but that one sometimes gets us mocked by the ignorant who think "nuclear physics" is for smart people and "squishy physics" is for the dumbasses.

powdered glass

[Russ Nelson (33911)]

The original bullet-resistant vest was flexible. It was made of powdered glass, flexible until hit hard, at which point it would stiffen up and spread the force of the impact.
-russ

Getting the wrong impression

[wrook (134116)]

I think people are getting the wrong impression here. This is put into suits for slalom and super G athletes. It's not to protect you from a fall, but to protect you from the flags that whip you when you go around them. It's not going to save you when you crash into a tree. It's going to stop you from getting bruises on your arms and legs when you hit the flags.

Cool idea. But probably not particularly practical in other applications (maybe useful for kendo??? -- but the armour's way cool, so why change :-) )